It's strange. I didn't dislike the start, the visuals and soundtrack were incredible, and yet I fell asleep and haven't felt motivated to pick up where I left off.
Maybe I just expect everything middle-earth to be a bit of a slog to sit through.
It’s far too early to write the entire series off. So far I’d give it about a 6/10. I’ll ride out the first season, as only 2 episodes in it’s unfair to judge the entire thing so far.
yeah, tons of shows I loved were crap after the first few episodes...some even took a season or more to really take off
Another possibility for meteor man, Tom Bombadil. I can't remember when the Ainur arrived on middle Earth, and I'm just swinging for the fences at this point.
Another possibility for meteor man, Tom Bombadil. I can't remember when the Ainur arrived on middle Earth, and I'm just swinging for the fences at this point.
I think not. Tom Bombadil and Treebeard have both been described as the oldest living things in the world.
The show may scrap that notion, but that's what the source material says.
My best guess and reasoning for the meteor man identity:
Spoiler!
I think there are strong hints that it's gandalf. There's a passing resemblance to a young Gandalf (or as young as an old man can be), and the way he spoke to the fireflies was very reminiscent of the way Gandalf spoke to moths. Radagast would also have such communing-with-nature abilities, and I think if we're strictly following canon, would be more natural at that than gandalf. Also, the path of the meteor can be pretty obviously seen as coming from the West, as in order the characters looking at it are in Lindon, and then Arnor, and then the Southlands (seen closer to the horizon), then Fangorn, and lastly the Harfoot home near the Anduin, so it's definitely something coming from Valinor.
But the main reason is that it makes sense is that all the movies lean heavily on Gandalf's love of hobbits, and so having a disoriented Gandalf appear in middle earth near the Harfoots and being nursed back to health by them would be a nice origin story for that friendship.
Also, despite my earlier objection about any Istari in middle earth in the 2nd age, I see that in the lotr wiki there's a reference to Gandalf (then called Olorin) walking in middle earth, unknown, before being selected as one of the Istari. I'm not sure what the source of that is, but second-age sources are all over the place.
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The actor who plays Elendil is bang-on. He conveys a gentle, kingly gravitas, and was perfectly cast.
Numenor's likeness to the Minas Tirith we saw in the LOTR trilogy was a treat. The white tree, extending terrace, the carved statues along the river while approaching the capital, etc.
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Okay episode 3 was a rather large step up except for the slo-mo horse riding (any one else creeped out that this is the only shot where we've seen Galadriel crack a proper smile?). It's not like she hasn't seen horseback for an eternity. The "mood" shots are just totally unnecessary. At least at 0.10x speed.
The show finally laid down some intriguing roots for storylines that are worth getting invested in.
Good character work between Durin and Elrond, the Hobbit girls and G-.. I mean meteor man, and Galadriel and her human companions, and the orc POW camp.
The humans in Numenor are what is really driving this for me, though. The Isildur origin story is interesting, given that we know where that ends up. Seeing that he protested being a part of the voyage adds an interesting layer of "what if" to the future of that plotline.
Love the parallels between Elendil and Aragorn, although plenty of variation too. Halbrand is great too. I like the his whole charismatic wanderer who can fight his way out of tight situations thing that he's got going on.
Didn't like brown elf man (name evades me) at first, partly because he looks so miserable and on edge like Galadriel, but seeing what he's been through now it's at least earned and he's growing on me with his sick fighting moves. He's like a stoic Legolas.
I'm really enjoying the high production values with the costumes, sets, and effects, and the story has really started getting interesting. My concerns are that they seem to be copying a lot of the story beats from LOTR and am unsure how they will tie this vast group of characters together.
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